Tyre question again ..

BTW 19" wheels have M&S Tyres, 20" have Road Tyres. But as has been said above they will all be fine come wintertime, it's the terrain response that makes any LR stand out from the pretend 4x4 crowd!

Was quite surprised to see the cost of replacement tyres for this car, typically double what I pay for my Subaru and about the same as a rear for my 911.

With M&S tires you are probably ok in the UK. Never driven a LR/RR on M&S. Other cars I have driven have been a bad ride with M&S both in summer and winter. (compared to summer/winter tires) Summer tires I would not drive around with if you get snow/ice. Overconfident 4*4 drivers in the winter are some of the most dangerous. When they crash they usually crash hard.

So my recommendation to you all would be:
* All year tires probably ok for the UK winter. Just test so the ride feels ok both summer/winter.
* Do not drive with summer tires if you get a real winter with snow and ice. 4*4 don't help you to stop and get grip on ice. Summer tires rubber get stone hard in winter. Can be really dangerous if you drive overconfident. Your snow button will not help you I promise. 20" summer tires on ice... Recipe for disaster.. But if you just get days of this and driver carefully. Its your call...
* 19" tires with winter rubber and 20" tires with summer (if you go for the Swedish winter spec). 1" less in winter for better grip, less costly tires/rubber.
* 19" tires with winter rubber and spikes and 20" tires with summer (if you do get a lot of icy an snowy condition. Meaning true winter roads like in the video above for months) With this spec your car will handle like in the summer and you will love every harsh winter. I love my X5 every winter and have this spec. Its the king of Swedish winters. Until I get me Evoque.
* Avoid anything spelled "run flat". I hate those on my BMW. Hard and lousy ride!

Land Rovers that come with M&S tyres as OEM also have suspension that is tuned for those tyres so the ride is no worse than it should be. IIRC all Freelanders, RRS,D4 and FFRR come fitted with M&S tyres - it's only Evoque that seems to be the poor relation in this respect. We have heavy snow forecast for next week here....................... my winter tyres have not yet appeared at the tyre shop

Regarding DSC and similar electronic systems. Yes they assist you in the "don't accelerate like fool while turning hard" and similar situations. Driving rear-wheel drive BMWs for many years and they have been truly forced to build more and more intelligent systems to be able to keep going rear-wheel drive. I had an Alpina B3 3.3 and the system was superb in the winter. But it could never help in braking on ice. Emergency situations. Or the worst situation when you get around 0-3 degrees with rain and then -1 to -5 just after. In that situation driving a rear wheel drive with any system and winter tires is a night mare. I have spanned around like twice in some really dangerous situation. (while driving carefully and have 20 years experience driving in the winter). Glad to be alive. I drive the X5 with spikes and the 1-series convertible with non spiked winter tires. The 1-series I don't drive in the worst conditions even though it has winter tires. (lots of snow with no cleared roads or rain/ice situations).

Would be "cool" if RR had some winter training courses in Arjeplog in the cold Northern part of Sweden. In that area we can get -50 in the winter. I did see that the video of the Evoque winter testing was from there. Most car vendors test their cars up there for winter conditions.

Is it a legal/insurance requirement in Sweden to run on winter pattern tyres between certain dates in Sweden Hybris? In the UK we have no legal/insurance requirement to fit them as normally our winters are wet not snowy, last winter was by far the worst in about 20 years so there isn't a real incentive to buy winter tyres. A cold winter here is when it drops to -5c and normally in the tropical SE they feel it cold when its drops to +10 and that is freezing for them!

I wonder why the Evoque never got m+s Tyres ?

December-March you must have winter tires in Sweden. Before that you are allowed if its winter condition. If you drive with summer tires and you crash the insurance companies raise your "self-risk" (not sure what its called in English). If the police stop you with summer tires you get a fine. The law is there to protect others from people that are lazy with the tires. You are allowed to drive with all year tires or winter tires without spikes all year (I think). But the winter tires are lousy in summer condition due to the softer rubber. And you the wear on them is really bad when its 20+ outside. So even if its legal with winter tires without spikes in summer they are

Spikes are allowed but they are starting to ban them in some city centrals. They say its for environmental reasons but the truth is that its for not having to repair the roads as often. As always economy do comes before saving lives...

Its sad but only 25% of the Swedes have winter tires on when the first snow and cold hits us. Total chaos for a couple of days every year. Especially around the Stockholm area and south as people are worse drivers there in winter conditions (not as much winter driving experience as people from the North)

(16-10-2011 09:11am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Land Rovers that come with M&S tyres as OEM also have suspension that is tuned for those tyres so the ride is no worse than it should be. IIRC all Freelanders, RRS,D4 and FFRR come fitted with M&S tyres - it's only Evoque that seems to be the poor relation in this respect. We have heavy snow forecast for next week here....................... my winter tyres have not yet appeared at the tyre shop

Tim what syre and size did you go for in the end ? im assuming without looking further that the FL2 wheels fit the Evoque no problem ?

I may oder some tyres and wheels now ready for the colder winter times. Im not sure whats available in a 20 which id prefer so it may be back to the 19's

Pete

Headline in Swedish larges newspaper right now. Three serious traffic accidents due to ice/slippy roads. Funny that one of the cars was the emergency services car. Winter is on its way...